Corpus
INTRODUCTION
In my musical corpus, I seek to answer the question of what is “sad girl music”, what does it mean to be a “sad girl” singer, songwriter and producer? In aiming to answer such questions, I’ve amassed a musical corpus which reflects the most popular trends and artists within the sad girl genre, such as Taylor Swift’s pandemic sister albums “folklore” and “evermore”, as well as unique songwriters which have most recently gained popularity, such as Phoebe Bridgers with her “Stranger in the alps” and “Punisher” albums. Additionally, I’ve added well-known pillars of the genre, such as Lana del Rey and Mitski, as well as artists appreciated for their longevity and whose older songs have remained iconic - most specifically, Fiona Apple. Additionally, I aim to uncover what it means for an artist known for her “sad girl music” to diverge from said patterns and apperently go through her “healing era” - this can be observed in the commercial trends of artists such as Lorde and fka twigs, both included in the corpus. Finally, newcomers and new sounds and trends are also included in the corpus, through Lizzy McAlpine, Gracie Abrams and Ethel Cain, whose comparisons will help us understand the new and up and coming “sad girl” music, and how much it reflects the core ideas already installed by more popular artists.
“When you are young they assume you know nothing” ( playlist embed will be here) ( work in progress )
What Is Sad Girl Music, and What Is Not?
In the scatterplot I coded, I was mainly interested in observing
differences in energy, valence, as well as mode of songs which I would
categorize as within the sad girl genre, and songs outside of the genre
through which I could compare and accurately define characteristics of
sad girl music. I made two separate playlists for the two categories -
the “not sad girl music” encompassed music which is by artists within
the sad girl genre (ie. Taylor Swift, Lorde, fka twigs), but whose
albums such as “1989” - a pop masterpiece, “Solar Power” - Lorde’s
healing maturity era and “Caprisongs”, an R&B dance mixtape, are
definitely outside of the genre through their high-energy, positive
narrative. This was done with the purpose of uncovering the main
differences that make sad girl music its own genre.
In comparing the two, I hypothesized that sad girl music would have
lower energy and valence, given that the lyrics are predominantly
negative and despite some energetic features, usually artists choose a
breathy sad sound to their instrumentals. The scatterplot indeed
revealed this overall assumption - but it is important to note that
there are exceptions in both categories. Additionally, I think it’s
interesting how the sad girl genre has a more diverse range of modes,
and also less loudness as compared to the not sad girl section.
Sad Girl Chromograms
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